Cholesterol

[kimzzy]

Hi have just been to the doctors and blood test came back high for Cholesterol 7.4 and was given tablets has anyone on here been given tablets and has changed the diet instead of taking them and did it go down and how did you do.

[qwen]

Hi my cholesterol was 6.3 the doctor was going to put me on tablets but I said I wanted to try and lower it myself I eat porridge i have low fat butter and drink a cholesterol lowering yogurt drink every day and i try and cut back on fat it has been hard I must admit that was 5 months ago so got to have a blood test again to see if it as made any difference fingers crossed 😊

[qwen]

Its not butter sorry its flora pro activ ☺

[Middleton]

Hi just had a blood test again 7,2 tried betavivo, flora active and benicol each time I gave it 3 months on each product and nothing brought it down I have a healthy diet and the gym 3 times a week. in the past been on 4 different statins each one gave me leg pains etc .Today the doctor rang and wants me to try another one not happy but he says with me being almost 73 I must try them again .So my answer is no diet and excercise did not bring mine down .

[Wyvon]

If you are not one of the families carrying the faulty gene which causes high cholesterol levels (F.H. = Familial Hypercholesterolaemia) then changing the food you eat to include oily fish (3 x per week), oats, red berries, almonds etcetera and to exclude saturated fats such as fried foods, lard, fatty meats as much as possible plus increasing the amount of exercise you take (even walking more each day will help) should reduce your cholesterol levels.

It is your life so your choice. You could try changing your lifestyle first and see how your levels have changed over several months or you could take the tablets for a few months and then change your diet and lifestyle in order to maintain (and maybe lower more) your cholesterol levels.

HEART UK is the cholesterol charity and they have a helpline if you need further information.

Good luck, which ever route you choose and please share your experience with the Forum members.

[Penel]

This article may be of interest to you. Cutting out refined carbohydrates (sugar, white bread etc) may help with lowering cholesterol levels.

scientificamerican.com/arti...

[azharzaidi]

Read my article that is being published in one of our most prestigious teaching hospitals of Pakistan. After you have understood the essence of this article I shall prescribe 3 vitamins that will reduce your cholesterol, lower LDL and Triglyceride and increase your HDL.

The Cholesterol: Friend or Foe?

By Maj {Retd}

S. M. Azhar Zaidi

For years we’ve been told, in essence, that cholesterol is a silent killer, building up in our arteries and causing coronary artery disease, heart attacks and strokes, all of which are pretty scary illnesses. We’ve gone to the doctor and seen great emphasis placed on our cholesterol “numbers”. When our numbers go up we feel concerned, when our numbers go down we feel relieved and safer, but are we really?

The emphasis on cholesterol as a marker for atherosclerosis originally emerged from two findings. Plaques are formed partially from cholesterol, and early research done in the 1950‘s and 60‘s found an association between higher levels of cholesterol in the blood and heart attacks. As a result, lowering cholesterol, along with quitting smoking and weight loss, became the primary focus of reducing heart disease and heart attack risk. Since the introduction of cholesterol lowering drugs in 1987 (the statins), the emphasis on lowering cholesterol has only increased. Now, it is important to understand:

There is no evidence that high levels of cholesterol actually cause heart disease. The relationship between cholesterol and heart disease, heart attack and stroke has always been an “association”. An association simply means that two things often occur together, not that one of them causes the other. Seagulls and sunbathers, for instance, often occur together at the beach. This doesn’t necessarily mean that seagulls cause sunbathers, or that sunbathers cause seagulls.

In fact, as more and more research has been done over the years, the association between cholesterol and heart disease, and particularly heart attacks, appears to be getting weaker and weaker. For example, it has been estimated that about 60% of people who have a heart attack have normal cholesterol levels. Furthermore, a study published several years ago found that almost 75% of heart attack patients had LDL levels within the recommended range, and about 45% had HDL levels also within the recommended range. Another interesting study published this year found no association at all between total cholesterol or LDL cholesterol levels and incidence of heart attack.

It has been fairly well established now that injury to the inner lining of blood vessels is the real cause of atherosclerosis and the diseases that result from it. This injury can come from physical forces, such as the increased pressure and turbulence that occurs in high blood pressure, or from chemical sources, such as free radicals (think of them as chemical sand paper), oxidized fats, {Lipoprotein (a)}, compounds from inhaled tobacco smoke, high levels of sugar, insulin and certain other compounds like homocysteine).

The Human body has the mechanism of self healing in case of abrasion to the endotheilium but it can only perform this self repair mechanism if it has all the building material required to produce collagen. Second self repairing mechanism in the body is the synthesis of cholesterol in an attempt to protect and repair the damaged tissue. Cholesterol is laid down in the tissues is a very sticky substance and any substance that passes over it will get stuck to the site that leads to a growing bulge in the interior of artery i.e. endotheilium.

So cholesterol is not the cause of atherosclerosis, but a part of the body’s attempt to heal the damaged to endotheilium. Now, there is a little bit of complexity here. Cholesterol may become damaged, or oxidized, by either improper cooking of the foods that contain it, or through VLDL reaction with aplioprotein or with contact with free radicals inside the body. If this occurs, then the oxidized cholesterol ends up contributing to arterial damage.

Far from being a villain, cholesterol is actually essential for the function of every cell in your body. It forms a portion of the cell membrane and without adequate amounts cells cannot function properly. In addition, it is the building block for many important hormones, such as testosterone, DHEA, estrogen, Synthesis of vitamin D from the ultra violet rays and progesterone.

Our current model for preventing and treating coronary artery disease is out of date and off base. Indeed, it continues to be the single largest cause of mortality in the world.

We need to address the causes of arterial damage.

•You’ve had at least one fasting blood glucose test above 95

•You’ve had a hemoglobin A1c test above 5.4 (even though your doctor told you it was fine)

•The ratio between your LDL and HDL cholesterol is greater than 2.5 to 1, even with total cholesterol levels under 200

•You carry excess weight around your middle, but your arms, legs and behind are relatively thin

•You crave carbohydrates or have an excessive appetite (with other signs, not by itself)

•You have slightly but not dramatically elevated blood pressure

•You have elevated Lipoprotein (a).

•You have elevated Homocysteine.

•You have high C-reactive Protein.

•Deficiency of Dietary Saturated Fats and Cholesterol.

•Excess dietary carbohydrate.

•Excess Estrogen.

•Testosterone insufficiency.

•Magnesium Deficiency.

•Trace mineral deficiency.

Conventional medical therapies have relied more and more on drug interventions to lower cholesterol, particularly the statin class of medications which includes Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor and others. These medications do effectively lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol but also lowers an enzyme CoQ-10 that is essential for all the organs especially for the heart. This makes some sense because statin medications deplete CoQ10, a naturally occurring compound that our bodies make and use for energy production. There is more CoQ10 used in the heart than anywhere else in the body because the heart requires a tremendous amount of energy to function. Heart failure is essentially a weakening of the pumping capacity of the heart, certainly something that could be brought on or worsened by inadequate CoQ-10.

Additionally, one of the most common side effects from statins is muscle loss, it occurs because statin medications tend to damage muscle tissue including heart muscle tissue. In addition to muscle pain and muscle damage, statins have other significant side effects as well, they are notoriously hard on the liver and kidneys (they can cause acute kidney failure) and they commonly cause cognitive impairment as well.

Coronary artery disease is the single greatest cause of mortality in nearly all the countries of the world, which is why we should be taking it seriously. The cause of coronary artery disease and other illnesses that result from atherosclerosis is really this: arterial damage. Except for the damage caused by high blood pressure, this damage comes from oxidative and inflammatory elements in the blood such as high blood sugar, insulin, Homocysteine and environmental toxins.

Apart from the above, the major cause of arterial disease is the way we treat it. It is mostly symptomatic; we do not address the root cause of the disease.

To be continued

[patientpat in reply to azharzaidi]

Hello Azharzaidi,

I found your post about the real cause of heart disease extremly interesting and informative. It made perfect sense even to a layperson like me.! I do know that it can take many years for new medical perspectives to take hold in mainstream practice.

For example it is known that Homocysteine is involved in the development of Heart disease but very hard to get GP's to acknowledge and test for it.. Measurement of Cholesterol levels are still the benchmark for testing.

Also,.APS was discovered in the early 1980's but there are still GP's(including my own) who know little about it. Suffice to say, I now know more than him about it and when I go to see him, I know what I am talking about, thanks in the main to this website.

Last of all, I still think the Pharmaceuticals are so powerful and the major players in all this.

Will certanly be checking out your article.

Thanks

[rocheen in reply to azharzaidi]

What would you recommend for high blood pressure. On meds how do I come off them

[jackP]

I find this discussion very helpful since I have also been concerned that Cholesterol is not the villain. I am on Statins and developing muscle weakness in my legs which the doctors are quick to say is due to aging. I want to try and manage my cholesterol and also INR myself via Diet. I have started consuming Green drinks with a some ginger to counteract the Vit. K in the dark greens which affect the INR and as a result the warfarin which I also take. I am planning to purchase a Cholesterol Testing Device as well as an INR testing device to I can make regular checks ... anyone with experience with these -please let me know what you think [e-mail]

[RitikaSharma]

Well, a common saying is that having a regular exercise burns a lot of your body cholesterol. but it is not a universal solution for people of all age.

[RitikaSharma]

For free consultation, you can contact Nutriadvice, a well known diet clinic in Delhi.

nutriadvice.in/